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Lehman Speaks on CCTV Program on Death Penalty in China

08.09.10 03:24 Age: 8 yrs

Lehman Speaks on CCTV Program on Death Penalty in China

Edward Lehman, Managing Director of Lehman, Lee & Xu, appeared as a guest speaker in the Dialogue program on CCTV-9 on Sep, 2, 2010 to discuss the first reading of an amendment to the Criminal Law. The amendment proposes to drop the death penalty for 13 economics-related non-violent crimes. Mr. Lehman, the longest serving managing director of any firm in China, has been working here in China for the past 23 years. He is also a former fellow at the Chinese Academy Social Sciences (CASS). He, along with Chinese nationals established LEHMAN, LEE & XU, one of China’s leading full service professional service firms with six offices throughout greater China.

Recently a draft amendment to China's Criminal Law has proposed reducing the number of crimes subject to the death penalty to better protect human rights. The draft amendment was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, for its first reading. While many people in the legislative and academic circles believe that the reduction of the number of death penalties is a positive step China has taken, the public worry that with the capital punishment for these economics-related non-violent crimes possibly removed, corrupt officials will feel more secure and become more rampant.

Mr. Lehman said, undoubtedly it is an unrealistic hope to abolish the death penalty immediately in a state where the death penalty is widely applied. To realize the ideal of abolishing the death penalty, the starting point should be strict restrictions on the imposition of the death penalty, and this would be a realistic path to the final abolition of the death penalty.

Lehman, Lee & Xu is a prominent Chinese corporate law firm and trademark and patent agency with offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Macau, and Mongolia. The firm is active in death penalty cases and has an active "white collar crime" division working on a wide range of cases.